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“There’s no point to character alignments in D&D or any other roleplaying game. It’s an unnecessary hindrance to players!”

Or if you’re a proponent of alignments, you’ve seen the eye-rolls from players and other GMs. I mean, who really takes those kinds of rules seriously? Should alignments even exist in roleplaying games?

Well, I am taking those rules seriously, as I play my way through First Edition AD&D. And I’m not simply finding them tolerable, I’m actually really enjoying the rules on alignment.

As someone who played 4th Edition D&D consistently for about four years (and has even dabbled a bit in the last year, believe it or not), I’ve experienced the other side of alignments. In the 4e Essentials book, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, alignment is discussed in this way:

“A character’s alignment describes his or her moral stance. Many adventurers…are unaligned, which means they have no overriding moral stance. … Most people in the world, and plenty of adventurers, haven’t signed up to play on any team–they’re unaligned. Picking and adhering to an alignment represents a distinct choice.

If you choose an alignment for your character, you should pick either good or lawful good” (Mearls, Slavicsek, and Thompson, pg. 43).

As I’ve played 4th Edition, my experience has been that 4e alignment rules functionally led to no alignments at all. Which is fine! I just think it’s an unfortunate drift from their original function. So why were alignments originally written into D&D? And how can their rigorous use actually benefit our games?

So you’re interested in the way things began? You find yourself wondering with nostalgia and curiosity, “What was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons like when it was first released? What did those first players think, feel, and experience?”

These are the thoughts that make you a first-time AD&D Dungeon Master in 2017. These are the thoughts that brought me to that place. And so here I am, preparing for my second campaign as DM.

Even though I had GMed many other RPGs–at least fifty games of D&D 4e, maybe more of FFG’s Star Wars RPG, with a smattering of others–I felt like it was best to start by going through some published AD&D modules. If you’re a first-time AD&D DM, I’d encourage you to do the same: pick a good published module for beginning characters and start from there.

But if you are indeed going to take that route, let me give you a few words of advice that will put you light years ahead of where I was when I first started this journey:

You might be wondering why a guy like me would be playing First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. And yet, here I am in 2017 playing AD&D more than any other tabletop RPG.

It’s strange especially now! In my opinion, tabletop roleplaying is going through a bit of a renaissance. 5th Edition D&D is drawing new players in and old players back. The success of sites such as DriveThruRPG makes independent games readily available. And beyond that, the vast variety of games available simply makes it a very fun and fertile time for tabletop roleplaying. So, yes, it is odd that I would go back and play AD&D 1e.

Since MadCleric.com has recently seen an upward spike in new readers, I thought I’d give you a more clear and comprehensive on the when, why, and how of my current AD&D project entitled, Chasing the Dragon:

Surely a GM like yourself wouldn’t be tempted to do such a thing! Despite our hardy stock and distinguished retinue around here, even the most skilled GMs will be tempted to railroad when GMing online. But, why would the temptation be greater online, you ask? I have been tempted and even succumbed to railroading when GMing online, because of these three factors: Continue reading →

You know what ruins an RPG session? When the rulebooks get opened up. You know what ruins it the most? When the GM is the one opening the book.

While my point could be applied to “rules lawyering,” I’m actually hitting at a more present problem at my gaming table: lack of familiarity with core rules. As you know, I’ve embarked on a quest to play through many of the classic 1st Edition AD&D modules. We have one session remaining in T1: The Village of Hommlet by Gary Gygax. That means after a solid ten sessions, we’re still having to look at rules. Why is that?

Of course, there is the charge that 1st Edition is too complicated, contradictory, and clunky. Granted, it is complicated. There are moments of fuzziness to the point of possible contradiction. But there’s a charm and personality about the system that helps me to overlook all that. I’m enamored by the tone of the game.

Beyond the quirks of 1st Ed. AD&D, I think that there are some rules that are simply hard to remember when you first begin playing any game. They’re not on the GM screen–they’re not readily available–nobody remembers! And, as a result, you can find yourself digging through your books at the gaming table more than is necessary.

Post-it notes! That’s right. It’s simple, it’s easy, find those finicky rules quickly if they’re absolutely needed at the table. The problem is less the books and more the fifteen minutes finding the rules.

So grab a pack of post-its, whatever RPG book you’re learning right now, and let’s mark our pages together. Ready? Here are the top pages that you need to mark right now:

A month or so ago, I had a very good question from @yukitsuki7 on Twitter:

What are your experiences with [online gaming]? What are the common obstacles for online groups?

It’s a very good question, one that I intend to address on my infrequent podcast. That said, a couple years back I addressed this over on The Mad Adventurers Society, a wonderful gaming site that will soon be coming to a close. In response to her question, I thought I’d go back, revisit, and revise that series of articles on online GMing. This is my first attempt to do so.

As many of you know, I started gaming in the summer of 2011 with D&D 4e. Within months, I was running a table for D&D Encounters at my FLGS. But I found myself wanting more very quickly. I wanted a consistent, weekly game wherein I could explore new places and new stories. Stories created by myself and other players! I wanted something personal and open, not the railroaded ten-week stints that were provided for D&D Encounters.

No pants required.

But who in the world can actually pull such a thing off, especially every week? I learned very quickly who could: the online gamer. Online gaming is a potentially tricky task, but one that I found rewarding and successful. My gaming group played weekly for two and a half years (of course, we took some weeks off here and there). And in the end, we stopped playing because the story ended. So in this, the first of five articles, I aim to share why you should consider being an online roleplayer. So let us begin with the many benefits of online gaming…

Many of you have been writing and tweeting, asking how the Chasing the Dragon project is going. Well, we’re five sessions into The Village of Hommlet and we’ve got two player character deaths on the books. In fact, here’s a picture from our last session:

You can see poor Elder Cunningham (our cleric) lying slain amidst his foes. You can also see the pain on Patrick’s face (Elder’s player) on the top left, as he grieves his character’s untimely demise.

As a GM, I really feel bad when PCs die. I want players to have a good time…and having your character ignominiously slain with one attack (RIP Elder Cunningham) just doesn’t seem like much fun. So it leaves me with a question: should PC death be a real potentiality? Or should GMs avoid it at as much as they can?

You might be surprised to learn that Gary Gygax played games other than Dungeons & Dragons. While he certainly enjoyed D&D, he was an avid chess player and war-gamer. And, of course, he always had new games brewing in the back of his mind.

While consistency is certainly key for a gaming group, some level of variety is necessary to keep players interested. You need to swap out GMs from time-to-time. Different games on the table keep people interested. Even a change in locale can spice things up a bit (hosting can get tiresome too!).

So by way of recommendation, here are the top six games that I think should grace your tabletop, if not as a permanent fixture, then as an occasional change of pace:

This is the third post in a series on responsible and affordable AD&D shopping.

It was one of the scenes with the greatest foreshadowing in “Stranger Things”: when Mike slammed down the terrifying miniature of a demogorgon smack-dab in the middle of the adventuring party. They were playing AD&D. And things just got real.

But a few grognards out there may have taken exception at this point. “Miniatures!” they might exclaim “We didn’t use no filthy miniatures in AD&D! It’s was theater of the mind!” So I’ve heard some say. But as one who has not only recently read the rulebooks in toto, but has also been recently playing AD&D 1e with miniatures, I think it’s the best way to play the game. And, for that matter, it’s not going to break the bank either.

But let’s start at the beginning: should AD&D even be played with miniatures? Is it really going to enhance my gaming experience?